Swipe Right for Murder

In 2012, when Nadine Aburas from Cardiff met New Yorker Sammy Almahri on a Muslim dating site, he seemed charismatic and glamourous. Their online relationship became intense and he came to Cardiff to visit her. In July 2014, Almahri paid for Nadine to fly out to New York to visit him. There, however, Nadine saw a different side to him. He was jealous and violent and threatened to blackmail her with compromising photos he'd taken of her if she left him.

To try and regain control, she invited him back to Cardiff in December 2014 when she planned to finish with him on her own turf. After an altercation with one of Nadine's brothers Almahri drank heavily and called Nadine who had his passport. After she brought it to him he went on to strangle her before going on the run. He spent the following days taunting Nadine's family and the police, telling them he was in a variety of locations including Cuba, when in fact he moved from Qatar to Tanzania.

With the help of the Tanzanian police, South Wales Police tracked Almahri down and extradited him. He refused to plead guilty to Nadine's murder – until, on the second day of his trial on 19th October 2016, he surprised everyone by admitting his guilt and was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum of 17 years.